Field exercises offer military forces readiness across the range of operations that its personnel and capabilities might confront. Field exercises are thus crucial elements of a force’s ability to fight and win.
Unfortunately, as the Wall Street Journal reports, an upcoming annual U.S.-South Korean military exercise will again avoid in-the-field activity. As with others since 2018, the exercise, which may begin next week, will be conducted digitally.
The Pentagon claims this digital framework offers an effective substitute to field exercises.
It does not.
Digital or tabletop exercises do provide real learning opportunities to operations, intelligence, and planning staffs, but if conducted alone, they preclude effective training overall. This isn’t that complicated. Consider, for example, that it’s one thing to move a marker across a board, but it’s another to move a brigade through the simulated and figurative fog of war. While digital training programs can provide some surprises for commanders, they cannot match the human factor provided by field exercises. Only field exercises allow all the ranks of a combined arms force to see what works well and what does not. How good are communications under fire and electronic warfare disruption? How reliable is the logistics train? Can air support pilots communicate effectively with ground controllers? Does each infantry unit have the mobility to get where it is needed? Are U.S. and South Korean military forces able to fight with synergy?
President Trump doesn’t seem to appreciate this reality. Instead, he prefers to view field exercises only as an expensive waste of money on an ally undeserving of said support. More absurdly, Trump believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s assertion that field exercises are an unnecessary insult. Of course, the real reason Kim doesn’t like these exercises is because they degrade his confidence in his ability to fight successfully.
In South Korea, however, field exercises carry special importance. As the Wall Street Journal points out, most U.S. service personnel in South Korea serve two-year tours, and most South Korean personnel are serving an 18-month conscription duty. With field exercises now suspended for two years, we can be confident that many of those tasked to assure South Korea’s defense have not actually been trained in doing so. Again, staring at a computer screen is significantly different than slogging up a wet, muddy hill, finding the enemy under a forest canopy, and destroying him with airstrikes, artillery, and small arms fire — while, that is, he unpredictably attempts to kill you first.
Yes, the suspension of these exercises was perhaps justifiable in 2018. Then, Kim Jong Un seriously seemed to be considering some kind of negotiated settlement to the nuclear crisis. But by the second half of 2019, it should have been clear that canceling field exercises was an unjustifiable mistake. That this necessary training continues to be avoided is even more absurd today. After all, Kim is still developing his intercontinental ballistic missile program and recently pledged to never surrender his nuclear weapons program. Those are not good indicators for enduring peace.
Trump and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea need to wake up. When they ask young men and women to stand on the precipice of horrific war, the least they owe said personnel is the maximized means to win. That means the right leadership and equipment, but also the right training.
